A few weeks back I was a special guest on the podcast “That Thing You Like” to discuss Strip Search — a reality show about webcomics. (My love of “advanced stats” also goes into other realms) In exchange, the hosts of the show: Christopher Baxter (@cbax) and Brian Shirlaw (@brian_rs) agreed to be on the Wages of Wins podcast! Both are natives of Canada and staunch Cannucks fans. In fact, they made some hilarious fan “Commercials” for last year’s NHL playoffs.

As such, we’ll be devoting today’s podcast to, what else, hockey! We’ll hit some of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but also delve into how Canadians name their teams, and which hockey movies are best.

3 Responses to "Wages of Wins Podcast: That Thing You Like – Hockey"

in New Jersey, we have the most winningest franchise in the past 2 decades…….. I like about 20 mins from the arena. I cant name you a single player on the roster.. but, we all go to the stadium JUST to go to the awesome club/lounge thats inside.
I dont think advanced stats could work well in hockey, theres too many variables like people who hit people and freak injuries that diminish speed… its just messy.

Hasani, there actually are some really good advanced stats in hockey these days. The advanced stats that seem to have some relatively good predictive power are the possession related stats (Corsi Rel, Corsi Rel QoC and QoT, OZone% for individual players, Fenwick Close, Zone Entry stats, PDO for teams). Stats like goals, assists, +/- are pretty meaningless.

Puck Prospectus, Arctic Ice Hockey, Fear the Fin, and Broadstreet Hockey are some great blogs to read for advanced stats stuff.